Elitegroup Computer System (ECS) will change its motherboard strategy this year to focus on more higher-end products, according to Digitimes citing sources at motherboard makers. Due to limited growth in the entry-level market, ECS has recently changed some of its PCB and port layouts to suit higher-end markets while also adding unique functions to its motherboards. With the changes, the company expects to grab a modest share in the mid-range and high-end markets. In a few words we might have new high-end motherboards soon from ECS, which is all good for us.

It could be put as "..may re-enter the high-end market". Honestly in the past they did make high-end boards in the hay-days of the AMD K8. In fact the PT-88 based on a SiS chipset was a good performing LGA 775 board, I ended up with a dead KN1 Extreme but that was pretty high-end. While they kept things low-priced they also made an illusion of their products not being really 'high-end', more of mid-high but the truth was they were.

I agree. ECS motherboards have some severe quality issues. I owned two ECS motherboards back in the day when I still used Intel platforms (so, we are talking 7+ years ago), and they were terrible, TERRIBLE, motherboards, as opposed to at least two dozen non-ECS motherboards that went through my hands since then. Hacky/poor quality drivers, BIOS bugs, poor quality capacitors, and the list goes on. From what I’ve read over the years, little has improved with ECS motherboards. As for high-end, ECS already has several “high-end” motherboards on the market.

Three guesses anyone, on why that motherboard in the link above has a “cooling duct” aka “Cooling Accelerator" (hey, don’t look at me, ECS made that term up) on top of the PWM controller. Tip: It ain’t just because they thought it looked cool.

I agree. ECS motherboards have some severe quality issues. I owned two ECS motherboards back in the day when I still used Intel platforms (so, we are talking 7+ years ago), and they were terrible, TERRIBLE, motherboards, as opposed to at least two dozen non-ECS motherboards that went through my hands since then. Hacky/poor quality drivers, BIOS bugs, poor quality capacitors, and the list goes on. From what I’ve read over the years, little has improved with ECS motherboards. As for high-end, ECS already has several “high-end” motherboards on the market.

Three guesses anyone, on why that motherboard in the link above has a “cooling duct” aka “Cooling Accelerator" (hey, don’t look at me, ECS made that term up) on top of the PWM controller. Tip: It ain’t just because they thought it looked cool.

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Even MSI have those small heatsinks on their mid-range boards. Just a thought.

I had one ECS board with stability issues at stock and one with failed onboard audio (in a less than a year). 2 MSI boards that were dead even before unwraping and 1 asus board with bad chipset cooler. I would buy ASUS anytime, wouldn't buy MSI if i had other choise, but i wouldn't even look at ECS... :shadedshu

When I killed my old K8N I bought an ECS mobo - boy was that a mistake. It was truly terrible - pushing up the FSB by just a few MHz would corrupt my hard drive. More competition is good, but I've never personally going to buy an ECS motherboard again.

That ECS was so awful I went on ebay and bought a new K8N from there instead...

Lol I was at NCIX picking up Crysis when I saw this kid(techy) pushing his friend(tech newb) to buy an ECS motherboard because it was cheap and reportedly reliable by his standards.

This conversation then caught the attention of another (hardcore techy) who interrupted them and recommended with sincerity to not touch the ECS mobo with a 10 foot stick.

ECS seems to have a wierd reputation as I had an Athlon 1Ghz go non stop 24hrs a day for 5 yrs using an ECS mobo where as my friend tells me never to touch an ECS product because he is on his 5th ECS Mobo replacement.

When I killed my old K8N I bought an ECS mobo - boy was that a mistake. It was truly terrible - pushing up the FSB by just a few MHz would corrupt my hard drive. More competition is good, but I've never personally going to buy an ECS motherboard again.

That ECS was so awful I went on ebay and bought a new K8N from there instead...

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Did you buy a Via chipset board? K8M800? If so yes it will corrupt files if you push the FSB because its not locked. Its not ECS, its the chipset. If so any board manufacturer would be the same. So don't complian.

Lol I was at NCIX picking up Crysis when I saw this kid(techy) pushing his friend(tech newb) to buy an ECS motherboard because it was cheap and reportedly reliable by his standards.

This conversation then caught the attention of another (hardcore techy) who interrupted them and recommended with sincerity to not touch the ECS mobo with a 10 foot stick.

ECS seems to have a wierd reputation as I had an Athlon 1Ghz go non stop 24hrs a day for 5 yrs using an ECS mobo where as my friend tells me never to touch an ECS product because he is on his 5th ECS Mobo replacement.

Luck of the draw it seems

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Just to add more.

Its like asking a reindeer to pull a coach (pulled by Horses). So set it and forget it. Don't change any settings it will do what it promised to do.

Did you buy a Via chipset board? K8M800? If so yes it will corrupt files if you push the FSB because its not locked. Its not ECS, its the chipset. If so any board manufacturer would be the same. So don't complian.

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It was a VIA, I can't remember exactly which chipset, I've given the board away.

You might be right though, I'll cut ECS some slack, but either way I'm sticking to non-ECS and non-VIA boards for the time being!

Quite probably more than just overly warm. The "Cooling Accelerator" introduces some additional thermal stability to that cluster of capacitors, caps that are surely way below the norm in terms of quality. This is ECS we are talking about. Because a 20 cent 40mm fan with 5 cent plastic shroud is heluva lot cheaper than proper components. Simple as that. They can spout buzz-words and slam as many "This motherboard is high-end, it REALLY IS!" stickers on their boxes as they can, that won't change reality.

I got to give them points in the marketing/buzz-word department. "Cooling Accelerator" is genius. I mean, its better than: "This fan is here because we used the same poor quality components we use in our value-line of motherboards, aka 'all of em', and it will make sure your motherboard doesn’t explode the first time you try to over-volt your CPU." Heluva lot shorter too.

I agree. ECS motherboards have some severe quality issues. I owned two ECS motherboards back in the day when I still used Intel platforms (so, we are talking 7+ years ago), and they were terrible, TERRIBLE, motherboards, as opposed to at least two dozen non-ECS motherboards that went through my hands since then. Hacky/poor quality drivers, BIOS bugs, poor quality capacitors, and the list goes on. From what I’ve read over the years, little has improved with ECS motherboards. As for high-end, ECS already has several “high-end” motherboards on the market.

Three guesses anyone, on why that motherboard in the link above has a “cooling duct” aka “Cooling Accelerator" (hey, don’t look at me, ECS made that term up) on top of the PWM controller. Tip: It ain’t just because they thought it looked cool.

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I have one of those, it is not to bad of a motherboard. It hit 2.67ghz with a 3600brisbane and 3.15 with a 5000be. Not a super board, but not a bad one.

heh, i skipped through the last half of comments, and i have to say regardless what the rest of the posts were, i have to go with i.r.a with this one.. No thanks!

even tho my personal experience with ecs products has been limited. i have not had a pleasent time using their graphics cards, and well i cant speak for the quality of their motherboards. i get the impression from the comments i have read thus far, that their motherboards arent any better then their gfx cards. you guys can say to me all you like that i couldve just gotten a doa product, ect ect.. rar rar.. imo ecs = shitty hardware
thankyou

IMO - ASUS is the only true 1337 high-end motherboard manufacturer - hell, they even go the extra distance to include pointless bells and whistles just so they can charge $100 more than their competition . . . and people still buy them like hot cakes! Even if I wasn't ASUS loyal, that right there would say something to me, if people are willing to pay that much extra for a high-end board.

One day, I swear I'm going to prove my "an ASUS motherboard is truly bulletproof" theory, and post the vid online . . . I just don't currently own a gun, and am too lazy to get the permits and all . . .

Anyhow, I used an ECS years ago, and wasn't much impressed . . . it wasn't too shoddy, TBH, but it had problems that mimicked other failing components every now and then. Perhaps it was just bad circuitry/PCB architecture, not sure . . . but it was thrown in the trash and replaced with an Abit.

I have built maybe 8-9 systems using ECS boards and they ran great.. Mostly the K7S5A & K7S6A boards. I still have 3 rigs running in my house on these boards. Not saying I would look to them for my gaming rig, but I have never had a problem using there equipment.